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Missing Foundations
Americans are living on borrowed time, economically. Like air conditioners, copper pipes and aluminum siding of a foreclosed home, what remains of our prosperity will be violently stripped away. There is no economic recovery because the foundations for such are simply not there. Jobs still leave the country, and the only way we can compete with foreign slaves is to become slaves ourselves, and don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design.
We fancy ourselves indebted middle-class, but this mirage is quickly evaporating. Most of us are indebted slaves. Banks conjure money out of thin air to enslave most of us for life. We must go into debt to buy a house, a car or go to school. Many of us go into debt just to eat. Like you, you and you, I will carry my shitty credit score to a mass paupers’ grave, with my hearse a U-Haul. There is a renewed emphasis on going to college as a means to success, but in this economy, a degree will likely only impoverish you further, since you will be in hock to the banksters even as you work a job completely unrelated to your dubious education. If you can even get a job, that is. Joining winos and bag ladies with smudgy and off-target makeup will be legions of useless scholars.
Still, there are perks to being house slaves of the empire, since even homeless Americans sport brand name shoes, and our poor are generally the most obese, meaning they have enough to eat, even if what they’re ingesting may shorten their lives by decades. We are unique in having thousands of fat people moving about on so-called mobility scooters, though their only handicap is overeating. Some of our grossest even star on TV, where they can sob in self-pity while competing to lose tonnage.
Though we may be stuffed and surrounded by stuff, our lives are not quite secure, because few of us own outright the roofs over our heads, as in many other countries, even if theirs are of tin or even grass. And since most of us owe more than we own, any financial slippage can mean an instant catastrophe. Surrounded by gadgets, an American can go from wealthy, by global standards, to being worse off than a Third-World slum dweller, if this Yank suddenly finds himself sleeping on a sidewalk, under a bridge or in a tent, when he’s not being shooed away by cops. With no floor under us, what good are our cumbersome arrays of possessions?
(Photo/Linh Dinh)In Philly, there is an elegant and homeless woman of about 55. Since shelters don’t let you in until evening, if they accept you at all, and promptly kick you out by dawn, this woman has to spend all of her waking hours outside, like most homeless folks. What makes her unusual is the amount of stuff she’s still trying to hang onto to, and I’ve seen her outside for nearly three years now. With a dozen or so boxes and bags, and an odd suitcase, she can only walk about 30 feet at a time, shifting each container one by one without losing sight of any of them.
Like individual Americans, America also spends more than it earns, a situation made possible only because this is an empire with military bases worldwide and war ships off every shore. We are an extortion racket the world is trying to shake off, and when that happens, our living standards will truly plummet. Many Americans like to depict themselves as the oppressed 99%, but from the world’s perspective, we are an insufferable 5% that are milking the world dry when not bombing it into submission. As long as we partake in the ill-gotten fruit of empire, we are complicit in its crimes. We! Are! The 5% that will pulverize you if we don’t get our ways!
Foot soldiers of empire, we do our share to prop it up, everyone from the poor who enlist to kill foreigners for bogus reasons, to spineless academics who stay clear of political taboos, to cynical journalists who mouth obvious nonsense daily. The Obama-voting liberal who drives an SUV and frets about gas price is a clear beneficiary of empire, but so am I, though I attack its bloody policies and own next to nothing. What I do buy would cost a lot more, however, if America withdrew all of its overseas goons. Without American missiles pointed at the world’s temple, the dollar would become asswipe overnight. That’s why even domestic foes of Bellum Americanum should be prepared to suffer personally for its cessation.
There are those who think that we can power down, trim our holdings and lose weight gracefully, that as this murderous edifice crumples, a saner arrangement will rise up, and I, too, hope that a humane revolution is in the offing, though I suspect that as the physical empire goes down, its worst mental aspects will blossom. Its ideology will harden and shoot. Deprived of their toys, many Americans will demand that their government does whatever is necessary to restore the good old days, so there will be more desperate wars, and more repression of those who oppose this American way of life. Meanwhile, the media will serve up opulent fantasies to feed a nostalgia for this lost and glorious past. The poorer we become, the richer we will look on television.
Americans will have less, and our lives will be harder, but no one wants to talk about this decline, least of all politicians, since that would be the quickest way to not get elected, but even if we had a wise and ethical leadership, our country will still go into decline, because the resources for infinite growth are simply not there. They never were, of course, since this is a finite planet, after all, where natural limits must be reached sooner or later. That moment is now, unfortunately.
Don’t kid yourself that the fiery anger burning through Greece, Spain and elsewhere won’t be but a tame prelude to what will happen here, what with our robust sense of entitlement, deep alienation and trigger happy ways. Our government seems to anticipate as much, for it has put into place all of the physical and legal means to clamp down on us hard, when things do explode.
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109 Comments so far
Show AllGreat article, Mr. Linh. I appreciate and endorse your angry tone and especially like, "We are an extortion racket the world is trying to shake off". Exactly!
Tony Vodvarka
"Americans will have less, and our lives will be harder"
Having less can make your life much richer. We need to have less, because the rest of the world has so little. Great article.
One's life does not get richer when "less" means no health insurance or income when you are old.
Of course not. But some of the most wasteful excess is not only unsatisfying, it's annoying. Traffic on I-580 starts to back up by 4 AM as commuters from Stockton trek the 60+ miles to their jobs in S.F., stop-and-go, inching along in a frustrating morning ritual that demands millions of gallons of (imported, mostly) gasoline and pollutes the Bay Area and the oil's source areas (think, Gulf of Mexico, Nigeria). At night the wasted hours of useless tension are repeated. The costs, in resources and health, are staggering and could be avoided by 1) living closer or 2) decent mass transit. Less waste and expense. More free time and relaxation. Same is true in a hundred other areas from food production to entertainment.
Rudy, having spent hours on that road, I understand your comment. However, there is mass transit. Stop at the BART station and then take Muni to you job. Or walk.
Hasn't Bart gotten to Stockton yet?
I lived in Modesto. We called it the Bed and Breakfast for SF.
People sold their homes in SF and bought in the CV and the wives could stay home with the kids.
I agree with the comment that less can often lead to a much richer life. However, the insanity surrounding driving 60 miles one way to work often means that that job pays better and offers benefits whereas there are no jobs or benefits closer to home.
There are many of us who see and feel the insanity around how we're living. But it's just not as easy to change it in some circumstances as it is to suggest changing it. I know, I'm stuck with a house I paid way too much for back in 2005 and can't get rid of it. The banks won't work with me because I'm currently unemployed. Funny how they were willing to work with me when I moved here; I was also umemployed at that time but they were making out like drug dealers. Currently there are 45 houses on the market where I live with no buyers. (population is about maybe 2000). Unless I'm willing to throw it all away and head somewhere else, it's almost cheaper to stay put and rot. What I had saved for my "older age" is diminishing fast.
There's another problem for those of us over 50; no one will hire us. I've applied for many jobs and regardless of credentials or experience, I'm screwed. I'm 55. They don't want someone who can't be manipulated or trained as a corporate robot. Some of us are just plain stuck. I don't think I've ever been as flummoxed or screwed in life as I am at this moment. And it's only going to get worse. It's like being on plane where the pilot has announced we're going to crash but the exact timing of that crash remains a mystery. Is it any wonder people choose drugs and alcohol as coping methods? I totally get why people want to anesthetize; there is no hope and even worse, there is this feeling of lost possiblity. Ouch! If you're not in the 1%, you're screwed.
"There's another problem for those of us over 50; no one will hire us. I've applied for many jobs and regardless of credentials or experience, I'm screwed. I'm 55. They don't want someone who can't be manipulated or trained as a corporate robot. Some of us are just plain stuck. I don't think I've ever been as flummoxed or screwed in life as I am at this moment. And it's only going to get worse. It's like being on plane where the pilot has announced we're going to crash but the exact timing of that crash remains a mystery." -- Elizabeth Tjader
My situation is similar to yours -- I am about the same age, too. However, it's happening to people in their 40s, too. I have been working freelance since about 2000. I had one really steady freelance job -- 20-25 hours per week -- up until December 2006. It doesn't take long to go through your savings! The woman I worked for lost a couple of her best clients, and she had to downsize. I didn't ever qualify for unemployment, etc. It didn't occur to me that I wouldn't find something to replace my steadiest freelance job. I went to various agencies that are supposed to be helpful to people like me in NYC, and I found the people who worked at these agencies to be completely ignorant -- and thinking outside-the-box, forget about it!! I applied for so many different jobs -- in my field and outside of my field -- that I hate to tell you, by now, the number. From potential employers, I heard -- I was over-qualified, "not quite what they were looking for," "we really don't think you'd be happy with this job," etc., etc. I changed directions and recovered my footing, somewhat, and thought I might turn the corner, and then, the economy really crashed in 2008!
Like you, I believe it's going to get even worse!
I did recover my breath, and began to breathe a bit easier, when OWS came to town here in NYC. I've been as involved as my schedule allows.
Yes, and we will probably have to deal with the pipeline from the dreadful Alberta oils sands next to keep these autos on the move.
America is a failed state.
True, but the problem is Americans have come to expect more, ever more in fact. It will be a very rude awakening when more is not coming. Of all the societies, Americans will be the hardest pressed to adapt to a less materialistic lifestyle.
Linh Dinh
Telling it like it is, with passion - right on.
I too doubt very much a soft landing is possible.
Like an airplane with all engines out, we are going down.
But with skill and good judgement, and a bit of luck, even a crash landing can see survivors.
Manysummits
=======
Hi Michael and all,
I respect Common Dreams for not agreeing entirely with my prognosis, since this is Common Dreams, after all, and not "Common Dreads" or "Common Nightmares," but this is my conclusion to above article:
"Don’t kid yourself that the fiery anger burning through Greece, Spain and elsewhere won’t be but a tame prelude to what will happen here, what with our robust sense of entitlement, deep alienation and trigger happy ways. Our government seems to anticipate as much, for it has put into place all of the physical and legal means to clamp down on us hard, when things do explode."
In the words of the immortal Malcolm X, "chickens coming home to roost".
linhdinh99
Yes - very frightening.
I have been in some very frightening situations in the mountains, where I climbed full-time for seven years, to gain perspective and reclaim my humanity.
Faced with personal extinction, one learns to focus on the task at hand. But I have noticed that there are few who venture off the beaten path, either in the hills or in the terrain of the mind.
I suspect this has always been the case, even in our days as hunters on the land.
Maybe it only takes a few?
When collapse does occur, the one thing power and privilege absolutely needs will be gone - credibility.
Mike in Calgary
====
Thanks for the clarification. So did Common Dreams actually edit out that closing paragraph?
Yes, but I don't blame them, since they have their vision, and I have mine, and we don't always overlap. There is only a handful of (non-paying, of course) venues for what I write, so I'm always thankful for a chance to engage people in a fruitful conversation, as happens here.
Consider the case of John Michael Greer . Though an extraordinary thinker and writer, he appears in no venue outside his own blog, so he must writes for free, and depends on his readers directly for support. Such is the sad state of our media.
Mr. Linh, Does the website "Intrepid Report" where I often see your articles posted also edit your work?
No, it doesn't, but with fewer articles than other sites, and no comments, since these eat up bandwidth, adding to the cost, Intrepid Report has a very hard time attracting readers. Its solo operator, Bev Conover, is doing all that he can on almost no money. A truly heroic effort, if you ask me. When his router broke recently, the website shut down for several days, with Bev complaining about "a $4.95 per month lease fee" for a new router. Now that's broke!
Once I wrote to Bev, "It's amazing that we continue to do what we do, and I don't mean that in a self-congratulatory way. It's just that our audience is so tiny, yet you, I and others like us put so much effort into it," and Bev responded, "My dear Linh, if we don't continue to do what we do, what good are we?"
They put it back. Someone is watching.
They did indeed! This website is run with such opacity! They also have a history of removing peoples perfectly civil comments and and banning commenters without any explanation as well.
Surely, the CD editor could have at least had the courtesy to respond to Linh's post with the following: "We considered your comment and decided that we had indeed erred in removing your last paragraph - it has now been included in your article. Our apologies."
Surely you can read ?
"
Posted by linhdinh99
Feb 26 2012 - 2:18pm
Hi all,
I just received a note from Common Dreams, "the last paragraph was accidentally cut off - not intentional. And now it's back." So that's that...
"
This notice came from the contributor. It is not his job to notify us of editor screw-ups.
The editor of a respectable media outlet notifies, with regrets, the entire readership of an error like this - they don't just slip the correction in the later edition and hope nobody notices. It's just good manners.
The commentary is sharp. That you cannot sell it in the main stream is telling.
Thank you very much for giving us the edited ending. I always look for your articles. Thanks again.
Thank you, Linh Dinh. Always great articles. Paul
Thanks for commenting in this forum and for providing the final paragraph that was edited out of your article/essay.
Each week, I read David Michael Greer. Currently, he is writing a series focused on empire. I usually wait to read it until I have time to make my way through the comments which are also very provocative. I wish I had money to donate, but I don't at this time in my life. For anyone who is interested, this is the link to David Michael Greer's blog:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
Thanks for this link. I should tell you that you seem to be confusing John Michael Greer with David Michael Green both who are doing good work on trying to educate the masses.
Thanks!! -- you are absolutely correct! However, I can guarantee you that I know the difference between the two men!!
I meant John Michael Greer, of course!! I find John Michael Greer far more provocative than I find David Michael Green.
If by David Michael Green, you mean the faculty member at Hofstra (or Adelphi - sometimes I confuse the schools), I agree that he is not provocative. He is strident, angry, impudent, and intemperate, but not provocative.
Yes, that's who we're talking about -- David Michael Green, the faculty member -- I think you are correct on both counts -- at Hofstra.
For anyone interested, though, John Michael Greer is a very interesting writer and thinker. Each Wednesday, he pens the Archdruid report:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
In addition, the comments are usually worth reading.
Speaking of who, DMG just released another of his rants and this is what does bother me, is that some people may actually believe him and take him seriously. That would not be good as on this particular one, his sarcasm is pretty dark and deep, enough so that it is what it is, dark sarcasm. It may show up here sooner or later or you can go to his blog site, 'the regressive antidote' and read it.
Read some JMG last night and compared to DMG, he is provocative and proliferate also. Reading back to just 2006 will be a labor so I will start back at the beginning of this work of his, but not without something gained.
Hi all,
I just received a note from Common Dreams, "the last paragraph was accidentally cut off - not intentional. And now it's back." So that's that...
democracy at work.
Unintentional. That's good to know.
Linh, I admire your work very much. I find it articulate, compassionate and eminently realistic. I look forward to your articles and wish you all the best. Thank you.
"... "the last paragraph was accidentally cut off - not intentional. And now it's back."
_________________
Nice save.
But there is the possibility that we end, not with a domestic bang, but a domestic whimper. The less and less we have, the more careful we become, like the homeless lady described. The empire and our police state run on revenue, as we die economically that revenue dries up. Whimper. I hope.
Revolution usually comes from the middle class, like Fidel Castro. I agree that the less people have the more cautious they become, but I also know that when you reach a certain point, many will fight.
Although not political, this amazing video shows that the "weak" are much stronger than the strong and that groups can kill the kings. It shows a pack of lions attacking a baby water buffalo, a struggle between the lions and crocodiles for the buffalo, the return of the herd of water buffalo who surround the lions, the bull throwing a lion 10 or 15 feet into the air, the herd surrounding the lions, the herd freeing the baby, the baby making it back to the herd, and the herd chasing the rest of the lions away. A remarkable parallel for our situation.
http://www.vidmax.com/video/3005/Water_buffalo_versus_lions_versus_the_croc_AMAZING_VIDEO_/
Billions of humans need to rise up against the small group of men and women who oppress the rest.
It's nice, for a while, not to be =alone= on Common Dreams, with angst of viewing fields of dead, naked emperors as if slaughtered by Pol Pot. When is Bill Moyers going to interview Mr. Linh?
I think the long term chance for survival of Americans, continent wide, is less than .001 percent. I suspect that even this level of chance would mean turning the clock back somewhere between 150 and 200 years, and being content with the lot of North American aborigines. For a brief period of my life I lived with friends in the CA Mohave Desert. Normal people, they chose to sleep indoors. I slept outdoors, and let my snores be heard by sniffing coyotes and snorting wild burros. I let humming birds land on my fingers. Nobody could make =me= feel deprived by curling up in a nicely cured-buffalo hide, or riding a horse drawn buckboard for transportation.
Mr. Linh has to be brief. He has no time to say that the single purposes of our species are two: 1) defeating death to become immortal and join =the gods= we envy, 2) in the interim, escape from reality by any means possible, even if that escape means murdering each other.
My position on CD is that H. sapiens was an experiment that had its chance, and failed. To-day, we are confused that the result of successful delivery is a LIVE birth. We pretend such newborns express the =optimism of God=. What a load of shit. At a minimum, survival in this Land may mean no childbirth whatsoever beyond 31 January 2013.
Thanks, that is what I have wanted or at least what I turn my mind to a lot these days. Never understood until late in this farcical game that, really, any indigenous people were living the best way possible, unless the invading europeans decide they need to go. As Siouxrose mentioned being lack of climate change in Linh's diatribe,but that is the big boy that very few humans will survive once it sets in as deep as any ice age. Be well to move to the northern tribes of eskimo, thule, inuits and others. Might be tough on those with sophisticated palates but it can be done.
http://www.biblelife.org/stefansson1.htm
But whatever the time, as of now I can still enjoy to a decent degree the ability to house clothe transport feed and amuse myself since I am part of the lucky ones living in this era between ice ages. The real concern should not be for how we can survive(we should know how to do that as well as understand we are reaching our time of 'passing on', as old as we are)but to actually worry about our children and theirs. These are the ones who will steadily bear the brunt of all the devilish shit those upper class assholes doles out to them.
One of the most ruthless and arrogant things organized religion crammed down people's throats is that is possible to live forever. True in a way but not how religion made people think it. So we now have to let ourselves be brow beat by some centenarian telling us how important it is to just keep living at all costs(if you're rich enough) as long as possible. Thank nature that that will not happen.
==One of the most ruthless and arrogant things organized religion crammed down people's throats is that is possible to live forever.==
SIDEBAR
At the end of the long book series by Jane Auel I wanted to shoot that woman. Her incredible character, called Ayla, is seduced by older women into honoring the status of Priestess, more than that of hunter, or healer, or flint napper, or fletcher, or brewer, or fisherperson - or any role that might be assumed by Jondalar - and is manipulated by consuming psychotropic chemicals akin to LSD. This allows connection with their gods and the deceased. This is Ayla's final =calling= according to Jane Auel. I began to understand book burning.
Trylon
Great insights by Mr. Linh, indeed. I would say that he left off the impacts of climate change, and how a government oriented to protect Wall Street rather than people, has done little in the way of shoring up its infrastructure in anticipation of this inevitability. Also, should a Christian Theocrat like Santorum ("Son of Sanitarium") gain the presidency, the rise of the Christian Reich will ensue. Those who are armed and believe in only ONE right way feel they can harm others who don't toe their path... with impunity. The wars so senselessly waged on other lands will return as karmic blowback, potentially taking shape as bloody battles over local turf, or feuds among the citizens of a hungry, imploding Empire. Betrayal ain't pretty.
Watch for falling debris.
During the last Great Depression in the 1930's in the USA we voted in FDR - in Germany they voted in Hitler......
This time will we pick the FDR candidate(ok non-existent at the moment) or will we choose the next Hitler?
"The poorer we become, the richer we will look on television". Great observation! TV fantasies keep the stupefied masses from noticing the morass they're sinking into.
Regarding the last sentence, the moment of reaching our natural limits isn't quite here yet, though we'd be smart to act as if it were. Humans are still busy squeezing resources from the earth at a feverish pace, ignoring that upcoming moment. If we can all cooperate and adapt to a world where we have to live sustainably, the pain of reaching our limits will be much less. Otherwise resources will continue to flow to whoever has the most money and/or weapons until the crash comes.
"If we can all cooperate and adapt to a world where we have to live sustainably, the pain of reaching our limits will be much less."
I used to have some hope that we would all come together, but the evidence is in, and it is that those in charge won't allow that. They are busy lying their asses off about everything desperately trying to maintain full speed ahead into the brick wall of climate change, peak oil, peak resources, and peak debt.
another great piece from linh, more dark than some of his other pieces but as they say the darkest moment...
linh says: "the only way we can compete with foreign slaves is to become slaves ourselves, and don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design."
i have been pointing this out for a long time
dr paul craig robert's book "how the economy was lost"
"The US economy has disintegrated, and with it into the abyss plummet the blueprints of neoliberal economists, whose theories about "the free market" have now gone the way of medieval alchemy. No voice has been stronger, no prose more forceful, than that of Paul Craig Roberts in predicting collapse."
http://www.amazon.ca/How-Economy-Was-Lost-Worlds/dp/1849350078
is currently sold out but is reprinting - apparently a lot of people are now interested in what happened to the economy and where the hell our jobs went
dr robert's site - http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/ - worth a visit
amerikans are poorly educated and even in the dreary 15 or so years you spend chained to a desk they never teach how the economy really works, they never teach how banks create money out of thin air and how debt makes their whole system flourish.
they teach fantasy and myth and most importantly adherence to authority, deferment to "better people"
amerikans don't understand how the cost of labor has been a major mover in the relocation of their jobs to mexico and later asia
simple - slave labor is cheaper and makes for more profit and more bonus
as linh says: "don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design."
the myth of amerikan exceptionalism is powered by the military as linh says "this is an empire with military bases worldwide and war ships off every shore."
chalmers johnson wrote a trilogy on the amerikan empire which were, all three, very good books
http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Consequences-American-Audiobook-Unabridged/dp/B003KWE5XI
chomsky has been talking about the empire and military for what 50-60 years
http://www.chomsky.info/
chalmers johnson took a lot of scorn for comparing amerikan decline to the decline of the roman empire but i think he made his point
in the latter days of rome they were reduced to the ceasars turned emperors, they had to endure the likes of caligula and nero
today we get the bush's, obummer, romney, gingrich, palin, reid, pelosi, boehner, etc
the modern day emperors
btw: caesar became a title emperors held. The title caesar turned into the more modern terms 'czar', 'tsar', and 'kaiser'
now we call him mr president
or even worse we then them bill gates or al gore
linh says the poor are fat - i say they are bloated - either way they are unhealthy and can barely walk. they eat what they can afford - greasy burgers made out of god knows what, 2 liter bottles of coke with 1500 calories in each bottle thanks to the high fructose corn syrup 30 times sweeter than sugar
to quote linh again "don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design"
we eat gmos's which cause all sorts of health problems
"You may have heard the FDA and food industry claims that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe, properly tested, and necessary to feed a hungry world. UNTRUE! Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are one of the most dangerous and radical changes to our food supply. These largely unregulated ingredients found in 60-70% of the foods in the US"
"It’s easy to understand the FDA’s industry-friendly policy on regulation of GMOs when you see the revolving door between agency regulators and the companies they regulate. The White House mandate to the FDA (under the first George Bush) was to promote biotechnology and the person in charge of developing the agency’s policy at that time was a former Monsanto attorney, who later returned to Monsanto as their vice president."
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/Public/AboutGeneticallyModifiedFoods/index.cfm
bill gates recently bought 500,000 shares of monsanto - the biggest maker of gmo's
to quote linh again "don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design"
the drinking water is poisonous
"A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans,"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3x_D4drss
and then there is fluoride
"Advocates of fluoridated water insist that the chemical additive is good for teeth, but actual science routinely shows otherwise, including a new study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association confirming fluoride as a toxic substance that actually destroys teeth, particularly those of developing young children and babies"
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030123_fluoride_babies.html#ixzz1nVHy3GZT
quite s state we find ourselves in as the country literally falls apart before our very eyes
that is why it is such a great idea to start yet another war in syria and then iran and then russia and then china
if that don't fix it well then i don't know what will....
to quote linh again "don’t think for a moment that this isn’t by design"
I agree medmedue. Let me add a couple of things. Monsanto makes Roundup which contains glyphosate, a poison much worse than DDT. Glyphosate promotes harmful bacteria and destroys beneficial bacteria.
Dr. Don Huber, an expert in genetically engineering, said about glyphosate:
A lot of these materials can have a very beneficial use. I'm certainly not anti-chemical. But we have to use some common sense. What we have with glyphosate is the most abused chemical we have ever had in the history of man," he says.
"… When future historians write about our time, they're not going to write about the tons of chemicals that we did or didn't apply. When it comes to glyphosate, they're going to write about our willingness to sacrifice our children and jeopardize our existence, while threatening and jeopardizing the very basis of our existence; the sustainability of our agriculture." … It doesn't mean that it's not reversible… But it means that we need to recognize what the concerns are, what's happening, and then we need to change."
Glyphosate can lead to sudden death of plant crops (maybe humans) and to infertility.
As to fluoride, the original studies were done in an agricultural area where people had very good teeth (I can't remember exactly, but I think it was in Texas). The soil and water had higher concentrations of fluoride than most places so "scientists" jumped to the conclusion the fluoride protected their teeth. But we now know that these people had great teeth because they had very wholesome diets with lots of vegetables and no sugar. Industries jumped on the findings, because fluoride is an unwanted byproduct of some manufacturing, such as aluminum manufacturing. So instead of having to pay to dispose it, they sold it to American cities.
good points tom
i watched an interview with dr huber where he was talking about an aids like disease infecting the soil all over iowa, texas oaklahoma etc
he didn't really say much more than that but it was eerie
he was also saying that cattle farmers and other livestock ranchers were suffering around 15% infertility and odd deaths in their stocks
again alarming
good points of fluorde
"Many Americans like to depict themselves as the oppressed 99%, but from the world’s perspective, we are an insufferable 5% that are milking the world dry when not bombing it into submission. As long as we partake in the ill-gotten fruit of empire, we are complicit in its crimes. We! Are! The 5% that will pulverize you if we don’t get our ways!"
Well stated. Americans live artificially large on the misery... on the enslavement, death and destruction of those in other nations. Slavery never ceased... the US simply exported it.
As they say History may not repeat itself but it definitely rhymes -
And the history of humans on planet earth is great societies appear until environmental destruction and non sustainability is reached then they disappear under 20' of dust over time -
Before this round each of those societies only destroyed a certain quantifiable area surrounding the center of the society....
Now that we are a global community with various chemicals and radiation that knows no boundaries the next great collapse of society may well be (near -if we're lucky) extinction of mankind.....
We've created an industrial society where if the power goes off for more than a day meltdowns of various chemical plants and nuke power plants and offshore oil rigs etc will blow out in uncontrolled spreading of pollution -
When society fails the destruction will be far beyond the centers of power as was the norm over the period of mankind we know about thru archeology and written history....
See sumarians, Greece, Egypt, Rome, mayans, Aztecs etc etc - soon to be written a global scale....
My comment in the Glen Greenwald thread fits on your comment here too:
"We all need to repeat these truths with our friends, families, co-workers. Rebuild the truth from the ground up, to build a solid foundation for real change. It's not fun, and it's not easy, and in many cases can have real consequences when our friends and families and co-workers decide we are threatening them, and act accordingly. But we must simply speak the truth."
And i would add here: The consequences of NOT dealing with the truth, are far greater than the consequences of simply speaking the truth.
Important points very well expressed, webwalk.